BIBLE CONTRADICTIONS: GOD'S NATURE

I have run across the mother load of Bible errors and contradictions.A search for "50,000 Bible contradictions and errors" on the internet will probable bring it up for you. The site is ghananet.com and I believe it is Islamic in origin. If you look at their listing of contradictions, you may note that they actually stop numbering them at #143 and don't have many more after that point. But then, as you will see below, the truth is not exactly their strong suit.

Most of their contradictions can be readily disposed of, so I will be grouping them according to general categories. The few that require a little more thought will be dealt with separately in future posts.

1. God dwells in chosen temples: II Chronicles 7:12,16                                                                                  God dwells not in temples: Acts 7:4-8

The II Chronicles passages merely say that the temple was the place for the sacrifices to God. In fact, earlier in Solomon's prayer (II Chronicles 6:18), he specifically denied that God could ever be contained in an earthly temple.

2. God gives freely to those who ask: James 1:5; Luke 11:10                                                                           God withholds his blessings and prevents men from receiving them: John 12:40; Joshua 11:20; Isaiah 63:17

The operating phrase in the first statement is “to those who ask.” A quick look at the contexts in the second group of passages shows that John 12 is addressed to those who refused to believe Jesus even in spite of the signs he had shown them; Joshua is addressed to the pagan enemies of the Jews, the Gibionites; and Isaiah 63 talks about the Israelites who had rebelled against God (see v. 10). None of these were truly asking of God.

3. God is to be found by those who seek him: Matthew 7:8; Proverbs 8:17                                                    God is not to be found by those who seek him: Proverbs 1:28

This “contradiction” is similar to the previous one. In fact, Proverbs 1:28 is not addressed to seekers at all, but to those who actually refused to listen to God when He called to them (as in 1:24). And, in addition, Proverbs 8:17 is talking about Wisdom, not God, as a glance at that chapter will show.

4. God accepts human sacrifices: II Samuel 21:8, 9, 14; Genesis 22:2; Judges 11                                         God forbids human sacrifices: Deuteronomy 12:30-31

Of course, the story of Abraham in Genesis 22 teaches no such thing since God had no intent for Isaac to be sacrificed. The story of Jephthah's daughter in Judges 11 is typical of most events in that book, which are mainly told to demonstrate how far from God's commands the people of Israel had fallen. And in addition (1) nowhere in the passage does it say that God “accepted” the human sacrifice and (2) many commentators are convinced that she did not die at all, but only had to serve the rest of her life in service to God rather than marrying.

The II Samuel passage takes a little more explanation. The background is that Israel was suffering from a famine caused by the fact that earlier King Saul had attacked the Gibeonites living in the midst of the Israelites under a treaty of peace. The blood shed at that time had not been atoned for by the blood of the one who shed it (see Numbers 35:33). So the Gibeonites went to King David and asked him to hand over the sons of Saul so that they can be put to death instead. David complies and the Gibeonites hang the sons “before Yahweh.”

Two explanations are necessary to understand this passage. In the first place, this was not in the nature of a “sacrifice” but rather a “ritual execution” (New Bible Commentary). Secondly, it was not carried out by the Jews, but by the Gibeonites who were an Amorite tribe. As non-Israelites, their own reference to carrying out the executions “before Yahweh” probably referred to their local deity, not the God of Israel (McCarter, II Samuel).

5. God's attributes are revealed in his works: Romans 1:19-20                                                                      God's attributes cannot be discovered: Job 11:7; Isaiah 40:28

The first point to note is that Paul in Romans only states that God's eternal power and supreme deity are revealed even to pagans through the creation. Thus, people have no excuse when they worship multiple gods instead. Paul is not speaking about all of God's attributes.

Secondly, and more importantly, the critic who formulated this “contradiction” has cynically quoted from two unreliable sources in Job and Isaiah without divulging this underhanded subterfuge. Thus, in Isaiah 40, God is actually quoting from the errant Jews and not making a pronouncement of His own. And in Job 11, the reader only has to note that the speaker in this chapter is not God or even Job; it is Zophar, one of Job's friends whom God later condemns for speaking what is not correct about Him.